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Showing posts from June, 2019

Radical Focus - A book review

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Focus, just focus. That is the main message in the book Radical Focus  by Christina Wodtke. I've read a few OKR (objective w/ key results) books and this one is by far the best IMO. I appreciated the fable story in the beginning (the first 2/3 of the book). It provided a good example of how messy startups can be, how OKR can help them, and how you won't be getting it right the first time. It may take some big changes to your organization, but the benefits are really helpful.  The nuts and bolts of OKRs are this; people get distracted from why they are doing things and they can get off track... sometimes waaaay off track. That is okay, we are all humans. Let us be honest, the internet is the digital version of Vegas. Squirrel! The methods outlined in the last third of the book are pretty cut and dry which is exactly what I've been looking for.  Setting Up OKRs I like how they suggested working on configuring each level of the OKRs. All the pitfalls, and what

Start With Why - Book Review (part 3-6)

This is the second post of my review of Simon Sinek's famous book "Start With WHY". Part one can be found here . Part 3: Leaders Need a Following Why is great, but you need the how and what. That is what I took out of part 3 of the book. Best quote is; "A WHY is just a belief, HOWs are the actions we take to realize that belief, and WHATs are the results of those actions. When all three are in balance, trust is built and value is perceived." ( Start With Why , pg 85) Part 4: How to Rally those who Believe Great section about taking action on the why. Where to take it, learning about the HOW, and applying with the WHAT. It talks about communication and recruiting the right people. Favorite quote from this section; "Finding people that believe what you believe, not just on skillset." Part 5: The Biggest Challenge is Success So true. Scaling is the most challenging thing. I've been lucky to be part of many scaling organizations